School and I never really bonded. I did have some good times in primary school but I have since found out not many of them had anything to do with learning. It seems I became quite proficient at avoiding education. Most of my memories revolve around escaping class. I’d do anything, run messages, clean out the store rooms (they were actually really cool with ladder like shelves all the way up to a man hole into the attic space above the rooms. A space you could stay in all day if you were quiet enough to let the teachers forget that they had sent you in there), offer to help out in the Kindy room or just not come back from lunch. I’d convince the gardener that I had permission to spend the rest of the day with him digging holes, planting plants and all the other fun not stuck in a class room type things that gardeners do.
Some of the few memories I have that are based around actual learning are about Book Week. I probably have to thank my library teacher Mrs Fitzpatrick for her ability to read a story in such a way that you were immediately transported to another world and my Mum who read to me every night and read to herself every day. I fell in love with books, head over heels. I love immersing myself in someone else’s imagination and the chance to dress up and do that for a whole day at school was amazing. Plus and a big plus you get to meet a real Author, it felt a bit like having Superman come visit your school.
So I am understandably thrilled to be helping my own Kiddies to create their Book Week costumes. In less than a week that pile of gloves feathers and fabric will be transformed into characters from an absolute favourite book in this house at the moment, two books to be accurate but they go together. Can you guess which books?
